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Left: This undated photo provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department shows Deputy Cecilia Hoschet, 32. Officials said Hoschet was shot and killed by her husband, Los Angeles County firefighter James M. Taylor, right, at their La Cañada Flintridge home on Sunday, Sept. 6. Taylor then took his own life at a fire department building in Pacoima. (Hoschet photo courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department via AP, Taylor photo courtesy of Los Angeles County Fire Department)

The La Cañada Flintridge home where a sheriff’s deputy was killed by her firefighter husband in what is being called a murder-suicide. The firefighter later took his own life at a Los Angeles County Fire facility in Pacoima.

Homicide detectives have interviewed a 6-year-old boy who was at his family’s La Cañada Flintridge home when his off-duty sheriff’s deputy mother was apparently fatally shot by her firefighter husband in a murder-suicide Sunday night, authorities said Tuesday.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide detectives were still searching for a motive Tuesday in the murder of 32-year-old Cecilia Maria Hoschet, a two-year employee of the sheriff’s department, whose body was found Sunday in the 5000 block of Crown Avenue after deputies responded to “a woman screaming” call.

James Taylor, a 35-year-old firefighter/paramedic for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, allegedly fled the couple’s home after fatally shooting his wife, authorities said. His body and a handgun were later found at a county fire facility in Pacoima, where he had worked and apparently shot himself.

“We unfortunately have two folks that are dead and we’re trying to figure out why,” said Lt. David Coleman of the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau, noting there was no suicide note. “We’re looking into their backgrounds, talking to family members and friends to determine if there was friction or marital issues. Right now, I can’t speak to that because we’re still wading into that.”

Coleman said he’s not aware that Taylor had any prior criminal history or mental illness but noted the investigation is still in the early stages.

The couple’s 6-year-old son, who was unharmed, has been interviewed by homicide detectives as have family members of both the mother and father, he said. Taylor dropped off the boy at a relative’s home after Hoschet was shot and before he shot himself, Coleman said.

Coleman declined to say whether the boy witnessed the shooting of his mother but did acknowledge that he provided significant information. The boy remains in the care of relatives, he said.

“Hopefully, the contact we have with the boy will be minimal because the concern we have is for his well-being now and his ability to move forward,” Coleman said. “Having circumstances like this thrust on him, it’s going to be tough.”

Meanwhile, Hoschet was remembered as an enthusiastic worker who talked lovingly about her family, a supervisor said Tuesday. Hoschet had an “incredible personality” and work ethic, said Lt. Tri Hoang, one of Hoschet’s supervisors at the county jail’s inmate reception center in downtown Los Angeles.

“She was always the first person to volunteer for assignments that needed to be accomplished, always had a great attitude when doing so,” he said. “She really enjoyed the work she did, was always enthusiastic about handling the tasks set in front of her and had truly a good time and a positive attitude toward the work that she did.”

Hoschet, who worked as a full-time deputy at the inmate reception center since January processing inmates into the main jail area, will especially be remembered by her colleagues for her character and her “infectious personality,” he said.

“Anybody that met her gravitated toward her,” he said. “She was a really good person.”

In addition, she treated all the inmates at the center with respect and dignity — as well as with “professionalism and an open heart,” he said.

Hoang said that in his conversations with Hoschet, the deputy “was always speaking about her family” and her son.

“I feel that it’s a horrific, tragic loss to one of our family members here, not only at the Inmate Reception Center but Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,” Hoang said. “Everyone (at the inmate reception center) feels this loss. … They’re going to miss her a lot.”

Among Hoschet’s survivors are a mother and father, two brothers and a nephew, who are feeling terrible but “just dealing with it as best they can,” he said.

“They lost a very important part of a small family,” Hoang said.

Taylor worked with the Los Angeles County Fire Department for six years. He was a firefighter-paramedic who was qualified to do urban search and rescue, said L.A. County Fire Inspector Chris Reade.

“Our thoughts go out to the family as well as their child,” Reade said.

Funeral arrangements for Hoschet were pending, Hoang said.

Anyone with significant knowledge about the couple that could shed light on the incident is asked to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500 or can anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Brenda Gazzar is a multilingual multimedia reporter who has worked for a variety of news outlets in California and in the Middle East since 2000. She has covered a range of issues, including breaking news, immigration, law and order, race, religion and gender issues, politics, human interest stories and education. Besides the Los Angeles Daily News and its sister papers, her work has been published by Reuters, the Denver Post, Ms. Magazine, the Jerusalem Post, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, The Cairo Times and others. Brenda speaks Spanish, Hebrew and intermediate Arabic and is the recipient of national, state and regional awards, including a National Headliners Award and one from the Associated Press News Executives' Council. She holds a dual master's degree in Communications/Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.